Accurate frequency tracking of timpani spectral lines
Donald L. Sullivan · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1997
A procedure is described for determining the frequency of timpani sound spectral lines to accuracies on the order of 0.05 Hz. A peak tracking algorithm uses a fourth-degree polynomial fitted to a Hamming window Fourier transform as the model function for a least-squares fit to observed spectral peaks. Accuracies of the tracking process are estimated for single sinusoids with added Gaussian noise and for pairs of closely spaced sinusoids. Tracker results are presented for sounds from a good quality 26-in. drum with emphasis on the harmonicity, or lack thereof, of the various partials.